The ancient Goki

The ancient Goki is a male Demon God with blue hair, blue eyes, sporting a fang is on the right side of his mouth and horns. Unlike Zenki, who started out as regular demon, Goki has been a demon god from the very beginning.

Goki is a real person, that descended from heaven in around 364 AD to 369 AD, making him about 300 years older than Zenki. While the actual year is unknown and Goki's true age remains hidden, he stayed a young adult man in his mid thirties ever since he had grown to his full size and develoved his full potential as a demon god, bearing the five elements of Aether, Earth, Water, Fire and Wind. His prolonged stop in aging proved, that unlike humans, demon gods are immortal beings.

It can be assumed, that Goki spent around 40 to 45 years working for the real Ozunu Enno, making him the demon god, who served Ozunu Enno for the longest time.

During this time, he also met Zenki, who served Ozunu for entirely different reasons than his azure comrade. (see "The ancient Zenki" for reference)

Goki started out as the most peaceful demon god to have ever lived, refraining from violence whenever he could and trying to settle arguements with wise words and only resorting to battle a foe, if the fight was unavoidable.

Due to his calm and collected nature and his great potential in leadership, Goki became well known as Ozunu Enno's right hand man and rose up to the rank of a leader of the Shugenja/Yamabushi.

But because of his pacifist ways, Goki was only respected among those, who wanted to live in peace. Warriors like his fellow demon deities and most regular demons viewed their more peaceful siblings, that wanted to coexist with humanity, as weak and frowned upon them.

This was despite the majority of all demonic beings favoring a peaceful lifestyle and most of them being dragged into battle by warrior demons and humans, who started a fierce competition to the death to prove who should have the right to rule Earth.

Goki's family


Even during the time of his servitude to Ozunu Enno, Goki fell in love with a human woman. Back in the day, this was unheard of, as rumours started spreading among the humans and demons, causing their warriors and simple minded beings to feel spiteful or even hatred towards each other. This was despite the majority of the demons and humans continuing to promote peace among both sapient species.

Even Ozunu, Goki and their followers accepted both humans and demons among their ranks and taught them the ways of Buddhism in attempt to protect them from hurting each other.

Despite this Goki and his wife weren't accepted by the demon warriors and even the demon god general Vasara frowned upon him, stating, that he should no longer be allowed to call himself Goki. Even Zenki wasn't too amused about Goki's decision, but was too occupied minding his own business to care.

Ozunu Enno was greatly worried about his right hand man and the future of Goki and his wife and decided to protect them. Since then, Goki's wife was the only woman ever allowed at Mount Oomine.

Despite all these obstacles, Goki proceeded to protect his beloved wife and cherished their love and soon five healthy demi-god children were born, each of them representing one aspect of Goki's elements.

After seeing Goki and his happy little family, Zenki started turning more accepting towards them despite his former attitude. He even occassionally played with the children and was allowed to teach them the ways of the demon warriors while Goki and his wife monitored them to make sure, that he would not accidentally end up dragging their children into the ongoing war between the human and demon warriors.

Vasara had long been sealed away by Ozunu due to becoming a great threat when he decided to take down humanity in its entirety. The main reason he was sealed was, because he did not fight humanity to protect other demons from harm, but saw the humans as the greater evil, which he vowed to exterminate.

Due to being sealed, Vasara never met Goki and his family and never got a chance to see humans and demons coexisting in peace.

Goki's passing


After living happily for years, Goki's wife got very ill and spent her days in their bed. As her health got worse and worse, Goki set out to find a cure, but his wife's illness was incurable.

When Goki was at his wife's deathbed, he felt great emotional pain and decided to give up his elements and his immortality. Shortly afterwards, he left our world alongside her.

Goki's loss was a harsh blow towards the Shugenja, who he had been leading for a long time alongside his master. As such, Ozunu Enno decided, that women should be forbidden at Mount Oomine. While he stated, that this would be due to their tempting nature towards males, the truth was, that he wanted to prevent another tragedy like the one, that had befallen Goki and his wife.

This was never made public, due to its great emotional depth and the ban on women kept going even after Ozunu Enno had left our world. In fact, it is still up even in the present day, a thousand years after these events.

Citation of the returned Goki


When Goki returned a thousand years later and was interviewed by Semerone on the matter of his wife's passing in July 7, 2017, he stated the following:

"Goki: "There's no need to cry.

The events of life don't always go the way we would like them to go and the flow of time is unpredictable. Face the future with courage and your inner strength.

Don't give up. Don't let the light of hope in our hearts be swallowed by the darkness of despair and sadness.

Master Ozunu once said, that if we can't change things, we shouldn't hold up ourselves with them, but face them with acceptance and I learned the truth of this saying, back when I faced the first love of my life back in the old days.

When the light of her life was fading and I couldn't stop the flow of time to keep the woman I held dear, I accepted, that I couldn't change her fate, but I just couldn't let go either.

I gave up my immortality to be with her. Now that I have returned to the world of the living, I feel her watching me and smiling at me for every day I spent with my friends and my relatives.

I will carry her warmth in my heart and will share them with anyone, who is willing to accept it, but anyone who threatens my loved ones will face my wrath.

They will face the cold shoulder of a demon god, the icy stare of Goki, the azure god of light and protection. May they have been friend or foe in the past...

The former might expect my forgiveness, if they redeem themselves enough, but the later shall expect no mercy on my part."

Cultural meaning


Not only Goki himself has returned, but his descandants have been telling the stories of Ozunu Enno, Goki and Zenki for a long time via oral tradition.

In fact, a whole village in modern day's Japan is claimed to be consisting of Goki's descandants and a young man of Goki's bloodline has been interviewed by Azure on the matter in April 17, 2011:

"Songgukanghong:

"My parents' hometown is well known as one of the holy grounds of mountain asceticism Shugendo, explored by Ennogyoja.

The two followers of Ennogyoja, often liken them to Oni, Zenki and Goki spreaded his words among the nation, and our relatives from the area are considered as Goki's family.

Those are my mother's handmade."

"Azure: "I luv your photo. Hail to Master Zenki & Master Goki!!!! (luv the Blue Demon so much, if you ever read the Manga Kishin Douji Zenki.)" ;)"

(They are referencing handmade figures depicting Zenki and Goki, that were made by Songgukanghong's mother. The photograph can be viewed via this link.)

"Songgukanghong:

"Thanks for the comment. I bet you know much more about the actual stories of Shugendo stuff, ha. My mother will be happy to hear you love those demons. Arigato." :)"

"Azure:

"Actually, I leant of Enno Ozunu (Enno Gyoja), Zenki & Goki through Japanese Manga, in which they're too cool for words. And since in the story, Goki is greatly associated with Shugendou and the Shugenja (aka Yamabushi), even more than Zenki, I've tried to explored the subject as much as I could b/c I luv the Blue Demon. (blushes)

Btw, it's cool that your parents' hometown is this holy ground in Nara. Still just a small question, I wonder why your relatives from the area are considered as Goki's family." ^^ '"

"Songgukanghong:

"It's been passed down as an oral tradition among local residents and followers of Shugendo. I've also heard family trees of the residents all connected to Goki origin."

"Azure:

"Oh thank you so much, that's GREAT. So they're all descendants of the Blue Demon!" (heart)"

After finishing the interview, Azure also stated the following in as a conclusion to her interview over at DeviantArt:

"Azure: "So... What can I say in the end? The Blue Demon Lord is greatly revered on the aspect of Shugendou and the close relation with mankind.....

...... His lineage lasts indefinitely in a colorful country brimming with folklore and culture unparalleled known as Japan." (heart)"